Book Cover Evolution

I'm running behind on comics right now because it turns out book launches are a huge distraction AND we had a family trip to San Antonio AND it's taking a while to perfect Fran's Mom!  In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy seeing the evolution of the book cover. 

My editors gave me carte-blanche with the book contents,, which was honestly a little unnerving because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never did!  

I had previously designed this banner for comic cons and I really liked the design, so I asked if I could adapt it for the book cover and they agreed!

Reshuffling everyone to fit the book shape was a pest and I was excited to stuff as much parenting "litter" in there as possible.  J thought up with the title and we went back and forth on whether it should be "tales" or "tails", eventually coming down on tails being funnier!  Which all resulted in Version 1:

I thought "I'm a genius! I'm done!", but this time the editors had notes!  "How dare they?!" I thought!  They said it was too cluttered and asked me to remove some of the stuff so the characters and title stood out.  Balancing these arrangements is hard, so I was honestly a bit put out, but I came to see what they were talking about with Version 2:

It wasn't as fun, but it "thumbnailed" way better -ie, looked better from a distance.  They still weren't happy though and wanted the characters BIGGER.  They were also worried the font made it look like a kids book.  This time around I accepted their advice eagerly, they really did seem to be onto something!  Version 3:

As I was zooming everyone in, I decided to move Fran into the center to make it more obvious that it was (primarily) aimed at moms.  I also changed the font to be a little bit more mature.  

You might also notice the credits changed from Chesca & J Hause to just me!  I AGONIZED over this decision!  J has always been there to help me out, tweaking my art or coming up with strips (all be it, usually organically!)  When I started Litterbox he said it would be better for the brand to just be about me, but after a while I wanted to share the fame by crediting him.  These days he's working on his own comic and I don't need to lean on him as once I did.  I asked him if he still thought his credit was muddying the brand and he did, so off it went, but not before I thanked him and the kids in the dedication.  Honestly they write as many of the comics as him these days!

The editors really liked my changes (especially having Fran in the middle!) but were still worried that those unfamiliar with Litterbox wouldn't get who the book was for.  They saw the tagline I use on my socials and asked if I'd be OK changing the name of the book to "Parenting is Weird" and having "Tails from the Litterbox" as a subtitle.  They also wanted me to add "Creator of the popular webcomic @litterboxcomics" to give it a little more clout.  I thought both of those were brilliant ideas and so the final version was born!  

Long story short... turns out editors are pretty smart!